Widow's Walk
by Ambiguous Avocado
Summary: In which Volkner is the widow and Dawn is the fearless sailor. Beaconshipping. VolknerxDawn. DenzixHikari. Game-verse. If you have a problem with age gaps, don't read.


**a/n: I am attempting another present tense fic and a sort of omniscient POV, because I like the style for short fiction.**

**This is for Volkner's Storyteller, who is the nicest person I have met on FF and a great source of inspiration. Thusly, her story, **_**Shockstruck Lovers…Maybe**_**, inspired this piece of work. Heavily. Never stop writing, my friend!**

**Disclaimer: Don't like, don't bother. If you have an issue with this pairing, don't waste my time by saying so.**

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**Widow's Walk**

"_Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning."_

Volkner's house overlooks the seas. After defeating him in the gym challenge, he offers Dawn lodging until she is fully prepared for the Sinnoh League. In spite of her rash nature, inherited—she admits—from her best friend, she accepts.

Every morning, she leaves to train on the beach. "It's more challenging," she says," because the sand sucks at your shoes and make it difficult for some Pokemon."

At noon, after he makes her lunch in a 'kiss the cook' apron, she returns to train more.

Then, after dinner, she is in the dark, staging battles for her Pokemon. At these times, Volkner walks up to the attic, the ancient staircase, and onto the rickety platform. Trusting the railing to hold his weight, he leans against it and squints to catch a view of the little trainer.

Her movements as she commands her Pokemon—points her finger, pumps her fist—are filled with confidence. When she falls, she gracefully regains her composure while rubbing her backside. He can see her wild gestures when her Pokemon attack—from frustration or enthusiasm, he couldn't tell.

She only stops when Jasmine, who Volkner speaks to on polite terms, comes over to talk. Even from the distance, with ocean winds lashing at his jacket and hair, he can see Dawn's intensity as she listens to the other Gym Leader's words.

When she comes back, fatigued and eyes bright with exhilaration, he asks her how training went. She always responds with a lengthy story of how her Pokemon have improved, the moves they are perfecting, and the tips Jasmine gives her. He listens, hangs on every sentence.

_She is almost ready…_

He never asks when she will leave to challenge the Elite Four. Her presence has become a necessity to him—he can't imagine his couch without her studying a Town Map, using a marker to draw the best routes to her goal. He can't imagine the guest room empty, or the beach without her footprints in the sand.

Volkner can no longer imagine being alone.

Dawn can't seem to imagine it either. Perhaps that is why she has stayed so long. She is more than ready to challenge the Sinnoh League, and can see the fierce look in her Pokemons' eyes, but she continues to stay in the house by the ocean.

In her second week with Volkner, she takes a chance to explore while he is downstairs cooking, knowing she will leave soon. A door next to her room intrigues her enough that she enters it and goes up the dark stairwell. In the attic, filled with cobwebs and cardboard boxes, she sees another, smaller flight of steps. At the top, she pushes at the small door above her head and pulls herself up through the opening. The warm sea breeze greets her, and she looks around the dilapidated structure, like a porch on the roof.

From the structure she could sea the ocean, and if she squinted, a glimpse of Victory Road in the red night. Everything is quiet—even the Chatots, now asleep—and she breathes in the salty air, realizing how much she loves Sunyshore. The people, the air, the ocean.

Volkner.

She blushes at the thought. Spending so much time with him, she learned more about the Gym Leader who can cook a mean mac and cheese, and sleeps in until four in the afternoon. But as she realized the feelings she began to develop, she spent more time training. Being around him makes her stomach twist up in knots, her cheeks flush, and when he looks at her with those childlike blue eyes, she wants to be close to him.

She trains on the beach to forget about these feelings.

The platform creaks, and Dawn looks to see the man she had been thinking about, and she turns back around to hide a blush. He comes up beside her and rests his hands on the railing covered in rust.

"You know, the wives of sailors used to come up here so they can watch for their husbands' ships," he says, the wind carrying his words out to the seas. "Most of them never came back."

Dawn thinks about this for a moment. "I plan on leaving tonight for the Sinnoh League. It's a red sky, after all."

He looks over at the girl, her dark hair fluttering, her hat threatening to fly away. Then he stares back at the sky, the deep red hue. "Is that so…"

"How about this," she says teasingly. "You play the wife and I play the sailor. Wait for me every evening when the sky is red."

"Will I see a ship?"

"No," she replies. "Just a bedraggled Champion."

"_Red sky at night, sailor's delight."_

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**a/n: Maybe a sequel for the simple fact I don't really like the ending.**


End file.
